This invention generally relates to a method for obtaining a photographic picture in one or more colors from a plurality of original color pictures and a camera therefor, and more particularly to a method for obtaining a photographic composite color picture consisting of a plurality of original color pictures which are laid out on the composite color picture according to a plan out of a plurality of original color pictures and an automated camera therefor.
Such methods are adapted to obtaining a lay-out or composite color picture out of a plurality of original color pictures for various publications, catalogs, photograhic magazines, etc. In such cases, the original pictures are normally photographic color films, and the lay-out or composite color picture produced therefrom is then color separated and made into printing plates. Since the original pictures may have been taken under various conditions, color tone of each of the original pictures is generally not uniform from one orignal picture to another. And, in addition, it is often the case that the magnification or reduction scale ratio of each original picture to the lay-out picture must be varied from one original picture to another in order to obtain a satisfactory or desired size proportion in the finished lay-out picture.
Therefore, a lay-out picture obtained merely by laying out a plurality of original picture on a plane and exposing them on a photosensitive material in a single process is normally not satisfactory because of possible unevenness in color tone from one original picture to another, some may be reddish while others may be bluish as the case may be, as well as because of disproportion in picture sizes from one original picture to another.
According to a conventional method for obtaining such a lay-out picture, each original picture is photographically duplicated one by one with an appropriate color compensation by placing a color compensating filter between a camera for taking the picture and the original picture and, at the same time, at a suitable magnifying or reducing scale so that each original picture may have a suitable size proportion when they are laid out on a plate according to a desired arrangement. Then these duplicated film images are placed on a transparent base according to a lay-out plan and mounted on a process camera for plate making, for example, to serve as a secondary originary picture in which color tone and size proportions from one picture to another are already adjusted. And the picture taken by this camera may be used for preparing a halftone printing plate or the like after a necessary color separation and other processes.
However, this method is very time consuming in that each original picture has to be indivisually duplicated and their color tone and size proportions have to be adjusted one by one. And, these indivisual original pictures have to be manually laid out on the transparent base one by one.
As an alternative method, it is also possible to color separate the original pictures first with a suitable magnification or reducing factor and, then, to lay them out on a transparent base for picture taking with a process camera for plate making, for example.
According to this menthod, however, since the relative position of each of the original color separated images, when it is laid out on the transparent base, must exactly coincide for each of the color separated lay-out picture in order to avoid mis-register in the finished picture which seriously impairs the print quality of the finished picture, a great care and skill are demanded in laying out each original color separated picture on the transparent base and, even for a very skilled worker, it is a very time consuming work involving a very high cost.
There also is proposed a method in which each of the color separated indivisual film images which are to be laid out is, in this instance, exposed to a specified location on the photosensitive material of a process camera, one by one, at a desired magnifying or reducing scale according to a predetermined plan in the process of picture taking with a process camera for obtaining a halftone image. Yet, it involves a considerable difficulty in eliminating the aforementioned mis-register and is not very practical for actual application.